Program: MPH in Community-Oriented Public Health Practice (2025-26)

Emely Diaz Barragan (she/her/ella) is a bilingual, bicultural public health professional and trained social worker committed to advancing health equity through school-based mental health, community-engaged research, and systems-level policy change. She is currently completing a Master of Public Health in Community-Oriented Public Health Practice at the University of Washington and holds a Master of Social Work with a concentration in Administration and Public Policy.

Her commitment to public health crystallized at 15, when she worked in agricultural fields in Yakima, Washington, alongside her parents. She witnessed firsthand the absence of protective equipment, limited language access, and the normalization of unsafe working conditions. Years later, while conducting mental health research with Latinx newcomer youth in San Francisco, she saw those same structural inequities surface in different forms during her practicum and capstone work with UCSF’s Fuerte Program. That continuity of inequity shaped her decision to pursue work that bridges community voice with institutional power. These experiences, coupled with navigating higher education as a first-generation student and daughter of immigrants, inform her values-driven approach to public health, one rooted in dignity, justice, and community partnership.

Program: Health Services PhD (2020-21)

As a PhD student in Health Services, I was deeply honored and grateful to receive the Aaron Katz Award for Excellence in Health Policy Writing. This award significantly shifted the trajectory of my studies, sparking a greater passion for health policy and showing me that it was an area in which I could flourish. 

After receiving this award, I dove headfirst into developing my health policy skills. I lobbied in Olympia with other UW students for health equity policies and was a Health Policy Writing Fellow at the UW Center for Health Innovation and Policy Science. As a Research Scientist at the UW Center for Anti-Racism and Community Health, I engaged  with state government stakeholders to evaluate various COVID-19-era health equity programs and policies. 

Ultimately, this led me to my dissertation, which centered on structural determinants of health—including an aim examining how state policy environments impact health and healthcare access across race and LGBTQ+ status. These findings have been presented at national conferences like the Behavioral Science and Policy Association and the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Sciences.

In my current position as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Cornell University Center for Racial Justice and Equitable Futures, my work focuses on Medicaid health policy. In my day to day work, I write policy briefs for state government audiences to advocate for more equitable coverage and access to Medicaid. I truly believe that my academic and career trajectory owes much to this award from the Katz-Dougherty Endowment for Public Health that I received in my first year as a PhD student. I am so grateful for those who continue to invest in and support public health students who have a deep passion for impacting the world in a positive way.

Program: Health Systems and Population Health MPH (2025-26)

My focus in public health has been on addressing upstream determinants of health by leveraging health policy. I have worked on projects doing health policy research, health communications work, public health programming, and project management. My work throughout my undergraduate and graduate education was across a variety of different topics: healthcare access, health equity, food access, violence prevention, public budgeting for public health, community wellness for LGBTQ+ food security, and reproductive health. 

I completed my practicum with Public Health Seattle and King County, doing policy work in collaboration with community members. I did my capstone work with Neighborcare Health, where I conducted a literature review and almost 20 interviews to create an evidence-based communication toolkit to better tell the story and value of Community Health Center work to the broader community. I will be spending the summer at Seattle Children’s as a Jim McDermott intern doing government and external affairs work. 

This award has helped offset the financial burden of graduate school while allowing me to engage in projects and grow as a public health professional. There are not enough words to describe my deep sense of gratitude for donors such as Aaron Katz and Kate Dougherty who are investing in students and public health.